First Observation

The classroom always has so much going on at the same time. Even though I have visited Mrs. Moore's 2nd grade classroom several times before, it still amazes me how she has the students in a routine where they know exactly what to do as soon as they walk into the door.

Students are learning about China during their social studies period, but they are also doing famous Americans during their language arts period. Even though both of these topics are social studies topics, Mrs. Moore has incorporated the famous Americans into her language arts instruction. The students are using library books, teacher-approved websites and teacher-provided books to research about their famous American.

While some students are working on their famous American research project, Mrs. Moore has her guided reading group reading a book on snakes. She scaffolds the students on looking back into the book for facts and focuses on key words, such as "all," not "some."

For large group instruction, the students are reading from Open Court Reading books. The students are learning about summarizing the beginning, middle, and end. During this discussion, Mrs. Moore continually encourages students to look back into the story to find the facts. In jsut one hour, I was able to observe that the class had a continual flow where the students always were immersed in learning.

Teaching Metaphor

Teaching is like being a dog owner.

I love my dog and believe that he is precious. He is loving, playful, and a great companion. Yet, I need patience and devotion to be able to take care of them. Even though I would like things to great all the time, there are times where discipline is essential, especially if he makes a mess of the trash. Having a dog is time consuming. Therefore, unless you truly love your dog, it's hard to put in the dedication and time that is needed to raise a healthy dog. As a teacher, I want to be able have the same dedication and love towards my students.

Just like every dog is different, every one of my students will be different and unique in their own ways. They will have different personalities and different ways of learning. As a teacher, I want to cater to their learning differences and encourage them in doing their best. I want to encourage my students to come to the classroom with different ideas and creative ways of learning. Students will make mistakes, but I want them to be able to learn through their mistakes. With my dog, he gets punishment when it is needed, but I quickly show him that I still love him. I would discipline my students, but also show them that it roots from how much I care for them.

I would need patience and dedication to my students as their teacher. Teaching takes time. It could be those extra days we get off or a month before school actually starts. Being in a room with 25 students for 9 months of a year is a long time. Without patience and care, it would almost seem impossible to nurture each student in being their best. I want to be able to see each student for who they are and not through a letter grade or others’ comments. Every student has the potential to be great. I want to be able to give them confidence in themselves and encourage them to do the best in all situations, despite the outcome. I want to teach because I want to see my students learn. Through the good days and the days where nothing works, I need to have perseverance to work towards the success of my students. Without the proper guidance and care of a teacher, students will go astray just like a dog would without a proper owner.

A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.
-Henry Adams